Chaka Khan Says She’s Planning A ‘Personal’ Prince Tribute

The death of Prince affected Chaka Khan deeply; the two were great friends. His passing even inspired her and her sister to enter rehab last month.

Khan famously covered his song “I Feel For You,” however she’s noticeably been absent from all the Prince tributes. She recently revealed to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the reason for her non-participation is because it’s still too painful. “I’m still mourning. It’s very personal for me,” she said.

She says she’s “still thinking about” performing at the official tribute celebration on Oct. 13 in Minneapolis, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t plan on ever publicly honoring him according to she’s planning her own “personal” tribute.

“I’m looking at the calendar to see what is going on. But I have something planned in the near future — a personal tribute,” she said.

She doesn’t specify the details of her Prince tribute, but she did dish on the tribute album for Joni Mitchell, who suffered a brain aneurysm in the past year.

“I’ve loved Joni Mitchell since I’ve started singing professionally,” Khan says. “I’ve been listening to her most of my life, and we’re very good friends. So when she got sick, I felt like now was the time.” She continued, “I always wanted to cover a lot of her songs for years and years. I’ve been waiting for the right time. I felt like the Lord was saying get started now.”